Dell Precision M3800
When Dell launched the Precision M3800 in late 2013, we felt we knew which laptop it wanted to compete. Dell followed the essential layout of the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display, the 15in model with discrete graphics, making a lightweight mobile workstation just 19mm thick. And it added a few twists of its own, propelled by Microsoft’s unfailing belief that what everyone wanted on their notebook computer was touchscreen control and Windows 8.
This year, the M3800 has been gently updated, now featuring a glass-fronted screen with a higher UHD resolution of 3840x2160 pixels, and a slightly faster Haswell-generation Intel Core i7 processor. Confusingly, Dell doesn’t seem to have changed the model designation, and as with Apple’s naming convention still references this model as the Precision M3800 (late 2013). As it turned out, despite the 100MHz speed bump for the CPU, in our tests the current model proved no faster than the last time we tested it; and in some respects was slower.
The Precision M3800 is designed as a premium 15.6in workstation laptop, packing an Intel quad-core processor and nVidia Quadro graphics. The case is made from a mix of metal, carbon and plastic, with aluminium lid back and chassis frame, carbon-fibre bottom and a plastic top deck.
It is well equipped with ports and connectors, including two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port, HDMI, an SD card slot and 3.5mm headset jack. This year’s updated model also now sees the addition of a Thunderbolt 2 port, Intel’s high-speed data bus developed for Apple that is now specified for 20Gb/s operation. This Thunderbolt port doubles as a Mini DisplayPort 1.2 connector, the only means to connect to an external UHD 4K display at full 60Hz refresh rate.
Besides these ports ranged down the left and right sides, there’s also a security lock slot, and a battery level indicator, which lights with up to five small white LEDs when you press a tiny button. The internal battery is relatively small at 61Wh, and is not user replaceable.
Components
With tumbleweed blowing through the streets that should have been touting new Intel mobile quad-core processors from every stall, Dell is also forced to use a main processor from a series that’s two long years old. Replacing the 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ is a 2.3GHz Core i7-4712HQ, a tiny 0.1GHz clock speed increase, and uses the same Intel HD Graphics 4600 as the low-power graphics processor.
For best graphical performance, there is also the same nVidia Quadro K1100M GPU, keeping the 2GB GDDR5 video memory specification from before.
Main memory stays at 16GB, two 8GB DDR3 cards running at 1600MHz. And storage comprises the same capacity 256GB mSATA SSD, although our new sample has a Samsung SM841N flash drive, effectively an OEM version of the Samsung 840 Pro SSD. This replaces a Lite-On (Plextor) mSATA SSD. And where the last generation also included an additional basic 2.5in SATA hard disk for bulk storage, this new model was supplied with just the single flash drive. That could explain why this new model weighed 1.95kg, against the 2.04kg of yore.
For network connections, there is no built-in ethernet although a USB 3.0-to-gigabit-ethernet adaptor is included in the box. For wireless links there’s the usual Bluetooth 4.0, and a two-stream 11ac Wi-Fi adaptor from Intel.
The keyboard is solid enough for sustained typing, notably omitting the right-hand numberpad that most 15in Windows laptops include to help fill the deck space. Instead Dell has copied the plan of the MacBook Pro again, usefully allowing the trackpad to be correctly centred on the top deck rather than uncomfortably offset to the left.
The trackpad is buttonless, smooth and black, with almost the same rubbery texture as the top deck. In use, it proved suitably precise to allow easy navigation and mouse steering. Two-finger scrolling is of the ‘natural’ type pioneered by Apple by default, where the fingers follow the direction of intended movement.
Stereo speakers are hidden below the front edge of the chassis, and are perhaps the loudest we’ve heard on any laptop when turned up. More pertinently, the sound quality is not too bad either, showing clear treble extension and less of the grit and tinniness that usual comes with laptop territory. Importantly the midband is relatively clean and intelligible for good vocal diction.
The display has been increased in resolution from the original 3200x1600 pixels, to 3840x2160. You could look at these as ‘quad 1600x900’ and ‘quad 1920x1080’ screens respectively. Again this is an IGZO technology panel made by Sharp, using indium, gallium and zinc oxide to form the thin-film transistor matrix.
In size, the Precision M3800 15.6in display is smaller than the 15.4in display found on the MacBook Pro, since Dell has selected a narrow 16:9 aspect-ratio widescreen designed for consumer products. Mounted in its bezel, there is wasted space above and below the screen which could have